csconstantine.com

Put the morgue and the morticians on stand-by. Chelsea played Russian Roulette – and lost.

The inquest into their first FA Cup defeat for nearly three years will trigger a bloodbath.

Retribution is inevitable, and will respect no reputations.

Carlo Ancelotti already has the resigned air of a man awaiting the fatal blow.

Players who once imagined themselves as a protected species may discover they, too, have ­outlived their usefulness.

Didier Drogba is lumbering through the motions. John Terry is immobile, a ­brooding political presence who is ­losing his power base.

For peace to break out, they must win the Champions League.

That looks as likely as Roman Abramovich filing for bankruptcy.

The Chelsea owner could do worse, much worse, than investing in the enduring qualities of David Moyes.

Everton’s manager has been concussing himself by head-butting football’s glass ceiling for too long.

He deserves better than the vicious circle of false hope and financial hardship that has entrapped the people’s club.

There was something richly ironic in the golden bullet being fired by his captain Phil Neville, the pro’s pro.

He had a strength of character beyond Ashley Cole and Nicolas Anelka, whose penalty misses ­reflected the flaws in their ­nature.

Anelka’s effort was limp, a caricature of misplaced arrogance.

Cole, rattled by a clash with Johnny Heitinga as he walked from the halfway line, showed no ­composure.

As ever, in this multi-media world, the most withering instant verdict was supplied on Twitter. Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech ­Szczesny piped up: “Is it a bird, is it a plane? No it’s Ashley throwing Chelsea out of the Cup.”

It was Chelsea’s sixth ­consecutive penalty shoot-out defeat, and ­Ancelotti sang an increasingly ­desperate song, sotto voce.

He said: “It’s not an easy moment. We have to be able to move on very quickly from this defeat.

“Every time the team doesn’t make the result the manager is under pressure, but I have ­fantastic support from the club and my ­players.

“It could be again a very good season for us.” When he returns to Planet Earth, Ancelotti may care to consider the merits of a move to Roma, who would love to ­repatriate him to Serie A

Chelsea will not have got a dire game out of their legs, and their minds, by Tuesday, when they play in Copenhagen.

They are laboured in thought and movement, lacking in creativity and confidence.

David Luiz and Fernando Torres may sell a lot of shirts, but they are not miracle workers.

Manchester United, a week later, may bring into sharp focus the “disaster” of falling out of the top four. Despite the timeless drama of the shoot-out, this was a return to the greasy spoon after the ­gourmet dining of the Champions League.

Stodge, congealing in the grease of wasted effort, was the speciality of the house.

It was summed up by the Michael Essien shot which hit a steward on the backside. You need danger money if you are patrolling in a 10 metre arc, behind the goal.

Not that Moyes will worry. ­Reality – that he will have to make ­strategic sacrifices to rebuild his side – was swamped by relief, and the ­romance of a lustily-acclaimed ­victory.

“I just had this feeling,” Moyes said of ­insistence that ­Neville take the final penalty.

“I thought that, with his nous and experience, he would be able to ­handle the ­situation.

“If you go into football management, you work on your team, and you try to win games.

“If you’ve got money, great. If not, you do the best you can. I’ve got a great owner. I just wish he had a few bob as well.”

There are compensations. Moyes need not fear the assassin, waiting in the shadows.

Labels: another, Chelsea, Everton, MirrorFootballcouk, rocked, shock, shootout